Newcastle Coroner’s Court heard last October that Mr Farmer’s parents have raised issues around the investigation into their son’s death which led to the inquest being postponed.

A pre-inquest review was told that the parents of the popular Newcastle University student had concerns about one individual who had not been interviewed by police and about text message exchanges between students who had been at the first year initiation event.

Students at the party messaged one another “deny, deny, deny” ahead of police interviews, according to evidence at the previous inquest hearing.

On Thursday, coroner Karen Dilks ruled Mr Farmer's death was the result of the "toxic effects" of consuming excessive alcohol and the lack of awareness to the "inherent risks" of binge drinking.

Ed Farmer's family call for change after 'needless' death

The family of a Newcastle University fresher who died from excessive drinking at an initiation event have called for the “potentially fatal” practice to be stamped out in the wake of his “utterly needless and wasteful death”.

Edward Farmer, known as Ed, suffered a devastating brain injury after going into cardiac arrest following the Agricultural Society event on December 12 2016.

An inquest into his death heard around 20 first year students were “egged on” to drink vodka trebles and swig alcohol from bottles by older students on a city centre bar crawl lasting less than three hours.

University registrar says there have been individual sanctions imposed

Speaking outside Newcastle Civic Centre following the inquest, Dr John Hogan, the registrar for Newcastle University, said that Mr Farmer’s death was a “great tragedy”.

He said: “Since Ed’s death, we have already made a number of changes to the way we raise awareness among our students about the risks of alcohol and how they keep themselves and their fellow students safe.

“However, having listened to the evidence, we will be reflecting carefully on all that we have learnt at the inquest and looking at whether there are areas where we can improve on what we do.

“Following our disciplinary investigations, a number of students were found to be in breach of university rules and appropriate individual sanctions were imposed.”

16:52KEY EVENT

CCTV footage shows Ed's last hours on bar crawl

CCTV footage shows Ed in an inebriated condition at the Metro station where he ends up on the floor.

He has to be helped by other students to get back on his feet.

16:38Katie Dickinson

Report will be shared with university

Ms Dilks says she will forward a copy of her report to Newcastle University, Newcastle University Students Union, Universities UK, the Department for Education, the National Union of Students and the Department of Health.

16:35KEY EVENT

Death due to 'toxic effects of an excessive amount of alcohol'

The coroner records a narrative conclusion that: “Ed died due to the toxic effects of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time and in part because the inherent risk of doing so were not known.”

16:34KEY EVENT

Students were 'unaware of the inherent risks'

Ms Dilks says there was “clear evidence to demonstrate they were unaware of the inherent risks of excessive alcohol consumption and that snoring was a sign of respiratory depression”.

16:32Katie Dickinson

Second years checked on Ed who was snoring

She says:

At the end of the evening four second year students agreed to stay up to monitor the first year students who were unwell.

They were falsely reassured by Ed’s snoring and they believed he would sleep it off and wake the next morning with a hangover.

He was last checked on between 2.30am and 3.30am before all four students undertaking to monitor him had fallen asleep.

Ed was not checked on again until 4.43am - at that time he was unresponsive without signs of breathing or a pulse.

16:30Katie Dickinson

Coroner begins her conclusion

She says Ed attended an initiation style event on December 12 2016.

“He was aware of the nature of the event. Although nervous he attended alongside 20 or 30 other first year students.”

Ms Dilks outlines the events of the evening up to Ed being taken to the house on Sanderson Road and being put in the recovery position.

16:11Katie Dickinson

Coroner back in court

Coroner Karen Dilks is delivering her conclusion.

13:41Katie Dickinson

Conclusion this afternoon

The coroner will deliver her conclusion at around 3.30pm.

12:50Katie Dickinson

Lunch break

The inquest will resume at around 2pm.

11:58Katie Dickinson

Mr Gerry reads from a policy document which says “NUSU is clamping down heavily on initiations” and anyone found to be holding one “will face strict consequences”.

11:47Katie Dickinson

New witness from university

The next witness is Simon Gerry, chief executive of Newcastle University Student Union.He says NUSU “put out its policy to ban initiations” in 2009.

11:39Katie Dickinson

'The most shocking, awful event'

Ms Braiden:

“This has been the most shocking, awful event for many people in the university and my personal commitment to make sure we minimise the risk of it happening again is absolute.”

She says some of the students who have given evidence this week have shown a willingness to be part of a campaign to raise awareness around initiations and the “risks of alcohol consumption”.

11:16Katie Dickinson

In terms of initiations, Ms Braiden says of the six the university have heard about in the past 10 years, “It’s fair to say the agricultural society and the rugby society are the ones we’ve heard about mostly.”

11:13Katie Dickinson

'It's not in our power to do that'

Ms Braiden says:

“We may never be able to prevent it because it’s not in our power to do that.

“This is an issue on which the university sector needs more help because it’s a society issue which finds a concentration within universities.”

11:10Katie Dickinson

She says there have been six such cases at the university over the past 10 years.

11:07Katie Dickinson

'It’s difficult to monitor such events'

Ms Braiden says:

“It’s difficult to monitor such events. They tend to come to our notice through reports of antisocial behaviour.

“In 2007-8 there was an agricultural society event similar to the one we’ve been hearing about this week and some students were disciplined as a result - some were suspended and some were given warnings.

“In practice these events tend to occur, action is taken, it goes quiet for a while and eventually it starts to happen again.

“We’ve heard students do know they shouldn’t be undertaking them and it tends to be furtive and under the radar.

“It’s extremely difficult if not impossible for a university to know what’s happening between a group of young adults on a day to day basis.

“But where we hear about initiations we always follow up and always take action against the students involved.”

10:46Katie Dickinson

Ms Braiden says since December 2016, with Northumbria Police, the university has introduced a compulsory induction for first year students which includes “risks to safety in general and risks associated with alcohol”.

10:43Katie Dickinson

Next witness from University

The next witness is Lesley Braiden, academic registrar at Newcastle University.She says:

“For many years the university has had an approach of not tolerating initiations. This information is made available to students in various formats at the time of their induction.”

10:41Katie Dickinson

DI Fairlamb also says following Ed’s death the programme delivered to Freshers has changed.“It’s around responsible drinking, not drinking excessively so you arrive home safely and don’t lose your friends on a night out.”

10:25Katie Dickinson

Inquest resumes - Detective giving evidence

The first witness this morning is Detective Inspector Jane Fairlamb of Northumbria Police.She says as a result of this incident:

“A lot of work was done with bars in the city centre around the sale of trebles and large volumes, as well as the responsible promotion of events.”

18:45KEY EVENT

Newcastle University fresher was 'physically shaking' before 'initiation'

A Newcastle University fresher was ‘nervous and physically shaking’ as he embarked on the initiation event that would claim his life, an inquest heard.

Edward Farmer, known as Ed, died from excessive alcohol consumption after an Agricultural Society event in December 2016 where first years were “egged on” to drink vodka trebles by older students.

Newcastle University student Ed Farmer

An inquest at Newcastle Coroner’s Court heard at the start of the night, around 20 freshers were told to line up against a wall and hand over a bottle of spirits and £30 they were told to bring with them to buy drinks.

The hearing was told Mr Farmer, 20, was described as “nervous and physically shaking” when he handed over his bottle and money.